Her Doctor
by VeraSorger
Summary: One-shot set after Donna and 10 leave Rose and 10.5 on Bad Wolf Bay. AU only if you haven't seen the deleted scene with the cutting of the TARDIS. Rose's thought as she adjusts to the new, yet familiar human Doctor.


Set: Immediately following the ending scene at Bad Wolf Bay right after Donna and the Doctor leave.

Rose gasped away from the kiss with the clone Doctor and turned, hearing the familiar sound of the TARDIS leaving. Again. She felt faint.

The human behind her wrapped her in his warm embrace, supporting her. It was comforting, but felt odd. Her Doctor was slightly colder than normal, human temperature. Her Doctor had the unique feel of two heartbeats, not the sole heartbeat beating against her back now. Above all, her Doctor would've taken her with him.

It all hit Rose in an instant, reality catching up. Her Doctor wasn't hers any longer. He'd left her on this bittersweet bay yet again. He'd run off with Donna this time, doubtlessly having countless and unimaginable adventures.

She realized quickly, the stark truth—her Doctor wasn't the one who had left with the TARDIS anymore. Her Doctor had become the figure behind her, the mystery of a Human-Timelord hybrid.

"Rose." The man whispered softly.

She jumped, too lost in her own thoughts to have noticed her mother leaving. Looking around, she realized that she'd been here a little while, just standing. Jackie was long gone, her tell-tale footprints etched into the sand. It was just her and this strange being now. The shock of it all finally pushed her over the edge. It was too much to bear.

"Oh, Doctor!" She cried, turning back to him. Rose buried her face into his blue jacket, the fabric dampening slightly from her tears. The hybrid's arms came around her, holding her close and offering the only other comfort he could give.

"I love you, Rose." He repeated.

The fervent words brought with them another round of tears from her. The Doctor telling her that was her deepest desire, but it only emphasized the differences between the two Doctors and the fact that he wasn't quite the right one.

It wasn't fair! Just when she'd finally done it, when she'd finally managed to bridge the dimensional gap, when she'd expected to find the Doctor and roam the galaxies with him, he'd thrown this at her. Now her perfect Doctor stood next to her, comforting her, but it just wasn't the same. It didn't feel right.

It wasn't fair to him, she thought, that she felt that way. The human Doctor openly loved her; he cared for her, and had told her as much, which was more than the other Doctor could say. And, he was, of course, as in the dark about the entire situation as she was.

Rose sagged a little, letting out the frustration.

"Rose, I don't know what to do." The Doctor whispered into her hair after kissing the top of her head.

His helpless tone sobered her. She was being selfish. She sniffed, wiping her eyes and standing back on the crumbling sand. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I'm being silly."

The Doctor smiled a little. The only thing was, it wasn't HER Doctor's smile. It was pasted on, as though he expected it to cheer her.

Rose tried to distract herself somehow, finally settling on examining the setting sun. "It's getting late, you know. We should go home before it gets any colder."

"Home?" The Doctor asked blankly.

"Yes, home!" Rose told him as lightly as she could. "I'm sorry, Doctor, but seeing as we don't exactly have the TARDIS anymore, it's the domestic life for you now."

The Doctor ignored most of her comment, focusing on the most important aspect. "TARDIS?"

Rose paused in confusion. "Yeah, the TARDIS. It's gone, right?"

"Yes, but…" He trailed off, pushing her away slightly and digging through various pockets.

Rose sat back on her heels and waited patiently, wondering what new scheme the Doctor had come up with.

"Aha! Here it is! Or, at least, one part of it." The Doctor held up a small, shiny key that glinted with the orange glow from the sun.

"The TARDIS key?" Rose wondered skeptically. "What are you going to do with that? Call the TARDIS back? I'm pretty sure that will cause some sort of damage again."

"Well," He dragged out the 'e' in a familiar, endearing way. "I'm not exactly calling it back. The Doctor… well, the other Doctor… uh, the not-me, but sorta-me Doctor? Aw, you know who I mean. Anyway, the Doctor gave me a little bitty cutting of the TARDIS before we got here. I didn't really remember it until now. It's been rather busy around here."

Rose looked impatient. "Yeah, it has, but what does that even mean? A cutting of the TARDIS? Why'd he give it to you? How does the key work?"

The man visibly perked up as he worked it out in his head. "Because, Rose! Don't you see? With the key, I can direct the flow of energy around it into growth! We'll have our own little TARDIS! We can build a Transcondimensional Transporter from your little devices and leave this dimension and go back! No domestic life for me!"

Rose stared into his excited eyes, watched his animated face and laughed delightedly at HER Doctor. He joined in, his body almost bouncing in anticipation.

The Doctor continued on his happy rant. "This means we can go back to our own dimension, Rose! Well, your own, at any rate, I don't actually have my own." He stopped, struck by a thought. "Have you ever thought about this? It's really not fair that you have your own dimension and I don't, I mean…"

And he was off, blathering on about nothing, constantly side-tracking himself, listening to himself think out loud with no mouth filter. Rose listened to him contentedly, giggling at his ridiculous expressions. THIS was right. This was natural. Standing on a beach in the middle of nowhere with HER Doctor, discussing possible escapes was normal. And soon they'd be gone, Rose knew, exploring the universe as a team. Running and running and running... The Doctor and Rose… forever.

….The End….

AN: Just a little thing I wrote on a couple sheets of notebook paper when I was REALLY bored. It was originally going to be a full story, but I have a tendency to not finish long stories. Therefore, hope you liked the one-shot!

~Vera


End file.
